John L. Might Be Half-Right
Sirs:
To a browned-out, hamstrung nation, TIME [May 13] eruditely announces that cities are running short of power, plants are shutting down, things are in a hell of a state. Your leading article . . . quotes an ominous John L. Lewis and two wrathful Senators, contains not a word about specific issues or facts involved. . . .
Before the public can be expected to exert its force of opinion, it wants to know who is being unreasonable, what steps can be taken to resolve the dilemma, how to get the coal dug and on fire. . . .
Those of us who work for a living are somewhat loth to believe that labor is responsible for all our nation's ills. . . . John L. might possibly be more than a "master strategist" possibly (with your implications a that his "master maneuvers are aimed straight at our liberties). He might even—oh, sacrilege—prove to be half-right.
KING RUHLY
Detroit
Murray—Sleepy?
Sirs:
. . . Your great magazine, under the heading . . . "Back of the Barn" [TIME, May 6] . . . made this statement: "The technique: buying from individuals in auto-jammed Detroit, selling to the auto-hungry mid-South through auction outlets in sleepy Cairo, Ill., and sleepier Murray, Ky.?
Who told you . . . that Murray was sleepy? How did you arrive at the conclusion that Murray is sleepier than Cairo, Ill.? Have you or any of your roving "asses of the barn" ever been to Murray, Ky.?
It appears that you . . . crawled up into the haymow in the loft and went to sleep. And, in your journalistic slumber, your uninformed, vague subconscious mind caused you to use the adjective "sleepier" about the most wide-awake town in Kentucky.
If you or any of your high-powered fact-finding sensation mongers would like to visit this "sleepier" town, the Chamber of Commerce will pay your fare here & return by Pullman or plane, feed you on Southern fried chicken and hickory-cured Kentucky ham with all the trimmings, and, what is more, we'll even try to wear our shoes while you are here. . .
MAX B. HURT
Executive Secretary
Chamber of Commerce
Murray, Ky.
¶ The free fare sounds fine—but soporific.—ED.
Woman in the House
Sirs:
I very much want to let you know with how much interest, admiration and appreciation I have read the article on The Netherlands [TIME, May 13]. ... [Your] associates have done a splendid job, for not only have they accurately reported on the present temper of the country, but they also have caught quite a lot of the permanent essence of the Dutch nation, and expressed it in a very readable form. . . .
E. N. VAN KLEFFENS
Delegate of The Netherlands
United Nations Security Council
New York City
Super Turbo-Encabulator
Sirs:
Being of the engineering profession, I was impressed by the profundity of the article, "For Nofer Trunnions" [TIME, April 15] ... in which the veil of secrecy was partially drawn from the "Turbo-Encabulator."